The School of Cinematic Arts, Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics, Visions and Voices: The USC Arts & Humanities Initiative, Cinema Guild and Kartemquin Films, in partnership with the USC Office of Religious Life, African American Cinema Society (AACS), and the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity, you to a special screening of "The Interrupters."

The screening is free admission and open to the public.

The film has won several accolades including, Best Documentary, 2012 Independent Spirit Awards, and Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival 2011.

About the film:

The Interrupters are a group of men and women in Chicago, most of them former gang leaders and drug dealers who have been participants in the brutality of the streets. A mix of African-Americans and Latinos, they work for CeaseFire, the brainchild of epidemiologist Gary Slutkin, who once battled infectious diseases in Africa. The singular mission of the “violence interrupters” is to interrupt the next shooting, to arbitrate disputes before they escalate and turn violent. Slutkin believes the spread of violence mimics that of infectious diseases so the treatment should be similar: go after the most infected.

The Interrupters of the film reveal their own stories while taking us deep into the troubled lives of others: a family where two brothers have threatened to kill each other; an angry teenaged girl just home from prison, desperate for guidance; a young man on a warpath of revenge. The hope is to create a powerful and probing look at the chronic tragedy of violence in our cities.